The number of registered unemployed in December jumped nearly 14,000 people on the previous month, to a new total of 187,153 people. This is an 8% rise from November and a 12.6% rise on December 1996.

Employment Minister Peter McCardle concedes the increase is larger than the usual seasonal boost caused by students and trainees finishing their courses and signing on the dole. But he points to the introduction of work-testing for domestic purpose beneficiaries and the spouses of people on unemployment benefits, as reasons contributing to the rise.

Figures faxed to the Jobs Letter from NZES; New Zealand Herald 28 January 1998 "Jump in jobless blow to Govt" by John Armstrong

Secondly, The Prime Minister's annual statement to be delivered in parliament on February 17 will have a substantial portion devoted to explaining Jenny Shipley's thinking on the social responsibility agenda, and the work-for-the-dole scheme. Thirdly, the government is to issue a discussion paper on its proposed code, which will be made public by the end of March. They are hoping for lively public debate and "consultation" to follow.

Sowry is quick to scuttle suggestions that the code will be proscriptive or punishment-driven. He wants to "disentangle" the code from scare stories about benefit cutting or tougher work-testing of beneficiaries -- issues which he says the government is addressing on "a different track".

Armstrong: "The coalition has set itself the ambitious task of trying to prod the country into a debate about welfare reform -- a debate for which the country displays no obvious appetite. The "modernising" of the welfare state -- more particularly, people's attitudes to what the state should be expected to deliver -- is the cabinet's prime policy thrust for 1998..."

Blair says the welfare state has become a dead-end for too many people despite the ever-increasing amount of cash poured into it. Writing in The Times, Blair says that "those in genuine need will always be helped and supported by a Labour Government". But, he adds: "...anyone of working age who can work should work. Work, for those that can work, is in our view the best form of welfare..."

Tony Blair appears undeterred by a left-wing revolt over his welfare reform plans: "This government will listen. But let nobody underestimate my determination to see this through..."

High on the British agenda is also the introduction of a "working family tax credit" similar to that introduced in NZ last year, under which low-income families will be paid benefits through their pay packets rather than receiving cheques at home.

Source -- The Dominion 14 January 1998 "Code of Social Responsibility 'radical'" by Helen Bain; New Zealand Herald 24 January 1998 "Welfare Reform cabinet's main thrust" by John Armstrong; The Dominion 27 January 1998 "End to benefit trap sought" by Mark Henderson of The Times; Reuters 15 January 1998 "Blair Pledges Big British Welfare Reform"; BBC News 15 January 1998 "Blair's case for Welfare reform" and "Social Security Factfile" on http://news.bbc.co.uk

The official word: Secretary of Labour John Chetwin says the figures were used in an assumption as part of the costing options prepared for ministers on the merger. But it may bear no relationship to the real outcome, as any redundancy decisions will not be made until a chief executive is appointed and staffing needs are assessed.

Source -- The Daily News 29 January 1998 "Welfare Boss: No redundancy decision" by NZPA

Dr Smith points to forestry as one area in need of substantial investment. The radiata pine harvest is expected to increase from about 17m cubic metres last year to nearly 30m cubic metres by 2007. Smith: "This gives NZ a choice. We could ship that timber off as logs ... or we could invest between $4.5 and $6.5 billion in wood processing and potentially create up to 30,000 new jobs and $5 billion in extra export receipts per annum."

Source -- The Dominion 21 January 1998 "NZ needs $100b in next decade - Smith" by NZPA

Amaltal's general manager Ken Atkinson says the ETSA practice is "grossly unfair" and was neither necessary nor desirable. He says the special payments could have resulted in unfair treatment of other trainees because of the added incentive for the school to place trainees of Maori background. ETSA says it will not comment until the Human Rights Commission formally advised it of a complaint.

Source -- The Dominion 12 January 1998 "Maori student incentive angers fishing company"

Source -- The Dominion 20 January 1998 "Navy boosts training amid trade skills shortage" by Cathie Bell.

The Immigration department says the immigrants face two main hurdles: many qualifications from other countries are unrecognised here in NZ; and there is not enough government funding for English language teaching for new immigrants.

Peter Cotton, a director of the Refugee and Migrant Service, says that the government is doing "an appalling job" when it comes to teaching English. Cotton: "If the government cannot see it has a moral responsibility to ensure enough language teaching, then it should at least see the economic argument that the longer people are unemployed, the more it costs Income Support..."

Source -- New Zealand Herald 27 January 1998 "Doleful migrants in jobless bind"

Source -- ABC News at http://www.abcnews.com/sections/us/work/work_obsessed.html

"Economics is our contemporary theology, regardless of how we spend Sunday. Economics is the only effective syncretistic cult remaining in the world today, our world's only ecumenical faith. It provides the daily ritual, uniting Christian, Hindu, Mormon, atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, fundamentalist and New Ager in the common temple, admitting all alike [...]

"The Economy differs from all other world empires, depending neither on Roman legions nor on British battleships, secret police, or stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Its power, like that of religions, has become interiorised. It rules by psychological means. The Economy determines who is included and who is marginalised, distributing the rewards and punishments of wealth and poverty, advantage and disadvantage.

"Because this internatisation of its ideas is so unquestioningly and universally accepted, it is the Economy where the contemporary unconscious resides and where psychological analysis is most needed. Our personal lives are no longer the place of unconsciousness every therapy session, recovery group and family counseling, every afternoon talk show and soap opera have opened wide the closets of private passions and pains. The unconscious is exactly what the word says: what is least conscious because it is most usual, most familiar, most everyday. That is the daily round of business. That is the daily round of the Economy... "

James Hillman, "Kinds of Power: A Guide to Its Intelligent Uses" (Currency Doubleday)